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Saturday, June 2, 2018

Quick Trip to Chicago

After manipulating the corners of the inner border, I decided on this spinning effect. It requires a partial seam but that's easy enough especially on such long strips. It just blends with the spinning pinwheels. {The other choice was a courthouse steps arrangement. I forgot to snap a photo and I'm not going back. This woman is on a deadline.}

Scientific Pinwheels quilt layout

DH and I flew to Chicago last weekend for baseball. We'd had the trip planned since last year and he encouraged me to take a break. I could have taken a photo of the entire Wrigley's sign but loved that the Cubs flew state, city, and team flags for their opponents. We arrived early the first day for a stadium tour. Wrigley Field is the second oldest baseball stadium. Their rich history combines well with some recent updates.

Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs

The next day we toured the Chicago Institute of Art. Silly me. I thought it was mainly a school but they have an enormous collection of art: paintings, sculptures, textiles, artifacts. Having learned from previous experience we selected five galleries to tour thoroughly and left the rest for another visit.

I never realized Seurat's painting was so large. And there was always a crowd in front of it.

Crowds viewing A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat, 1884.

The painted border is an interesting detail I never knew existed. This is not a mat. It's painted on the edge of the canvas. So quilters aren't the only ones who add borders.

Detail of the border of A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat, 1884.

I thought this was a "one-off" paint technique until I saw Vincent van Gogh's Fishing in Spring, the Pont de Clichy (Asnieres) nearby. Influenced by Paul Signac and Georges Seurat, the Neo-Impressionist style emphasizes scientific use of color theory. You can see many aspects of Seurat's technique in this painting including the bright red mat Vincent painted around his picture.

Fishing in Spring, the Pont de Clichy (Asnieres) by Vincent van Gogh, 1887.

Chicagoans rallied to preserve their city's landmarks and the Chicago Architecture Foundation leads river tours of the varied skyscrapers of downtown. We thoroughly enjoyed ending the day with a sunset cruise while watching the lights go on. So informative, so lovely.

Nighttime Chicago skyline from the river

When buildings are torn down, artifacts are offered to various foundations and museums. The Institute displayed several in their Grand Staircase. Don't you love the Art Deco elevator screen?

Artifacts of Chicago's past at the Institute of Art

Now that we're home I can finish the Scientific Pinwheel quilt. Good thing because the new dad visits soon.

16 comments:

Chicago is a multi-faceted place - visited there many times growing up and as a young married. Thanks for the photo memories! And If you post the first comment yourself and click the box to notify of any followup comments, subsequent comments will show up in youe email (although not in the regular reply-to format). Credit for this workaround goes to Dianne!

Lucky you, Julie. This was my first visit. It was amazingly hot for May but I know it becomes frigid in winter. Loved Lake Michigan and the shoreline filled with sunbathers. A wide horizon and no waves at all. You must have wonderful memories from your many visits.

I love what happens when a quilter looks at art. Never noticed the borders, myself. Visited that museum pre-quilting days. I too have loved Architecture Tours in my days there. I like your pinwheel quilt plans.

My DH takes such good care of me. We both enjoyed it and my anxiety ratcheted down a bit. If I can just get a couple weeks' break I should be good to get back at it. So much. Wrigley Field was fabulous. I could imagine crowds through the years. So many happy memories in that park.

How fortunate you are, Pamela. It would be a wonderful place to visit regularly... and even more special to have family there to share it with. I've heard from several people about the Thorne exhibits but wasn't sure DH would enjoy them. Next time for sure.

I worked as a contract web tester one winter in Chicago. The day I arrived there was snow, snow, snow. Actually, I had to wait in Tulsa for takeoff for several, several hours and we had to have the plane de-iced twice here. Then it was deep now even for Chicago. I was very busy at work and didn't get to see much. A fellow female coworker and I shared an apartment on the 24th floor of an apartment building not too far from Lake Michigan. We could sit in our apartment and look out over the streets below. One night, I was just watching people and saw a guy go in an alley behind a Walgreen's about a block away and stand there and use the bathroom. Guys have a certain stance when using the bathroom. I hollered for my roommate and we were shocked that the guy just stood there as if no one could see him. One evening after work, we got stuck in the elevator with a guy who was freaking out. We just took out our laptops and starting playing games. We sat down on the floor of the elevator. Finally, the guy calmed down a little since we weren't freaking out. I wasn't as calm as I pretended to be. I thought we had pushed every button on the elevator panel. Actually, we were stuck on the floor where we had let off people. The doorman came up and helped us get out and took us to our respective floors. I'd love to go to the museums. We did go to a hockey game. As I said, we were busy. We took our client out to eat lots at our boss' request. Thanks for pointing out quilt related things in the art. I would not have noticed those things.

I am a gardener, as well as a quilter, and never saw the painting. When my kids were small, we went through Columbus Ohio, and stopped at the topiary park. It was in its infancy then, I do want to go back to it nowhttp://www.topiarypark.org/